Cannabis Use Increases Among Parents With Children at Home

Parents with children at home have
an increased use of cannabis and a decreased use of cigarette smoking in
2015 compared to 2002

The use of cannabis
is nearly 4 times more common among cigarette smokers than non-smokers

The results
indicate that cannabis use could negatively affect the success had in
decreasing tobacco use.

A latest study by researchers at Columbia University's
Mailman School of Public Health and City University of New York studying cannabis use among parents with children at
home have found thatthe use of
the drug has increased among smoking and
non-smoking parents. Parents who smoked had increased their cannabis use
nearly four times compared with non-smokers.

The findings will be published online in the June issue
of Pediatrics.

Cannabis Use Increases Among Parents With Children at Home

"While great strides have been made to reduce children's
exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke, those efforts may be undermined by
increasing use of cannabis among parents with children living at home,"
said Renee Goodwin, PhD, in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman
School of Public Health, and corresponding author. Cannabis or marijuana is
the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States.Young
adults are the most common users of the drug totaling more than 11 million in
number (ages 18 to 25) in 2015.

Study - Cannabis Use

There is little knowledge about current trends in the use of
cannabis like

The use of the drug
among parents with children in the home

The prevalence and
changes in exposure to both tobacco and cannabis

The populations
that might be at greatest risk

Daily use among
parents.

To study more on this topic, researchers
analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health which is an
annual, nationally representative, cross-sectional study conducted in the
United States.

‘Researchers have found that the use of cannabis among parents with children in the house has increased, the increase is 4 times higher among smokers than non-smokers. The increase in cannabis use may be compromising progress in curbing exposure to second-hand smoke.
’

The
study was based on the current trends in cannabis use among parents who identified as
cigarette smokers and non-smokers with children in the home from 2002 to 2015. The
study analyzed associations between cigarette smoking and any past-month and
daily past-month cannabis use among the parents using logistic regression
models.

Main results of the study

Past-month cannabis
use increased from 5 percent in 2002 to 7 percent in 2015 among parents
with children at home - this contrasted with cigarette
smoking which declined from 28 percent to 20 percent.

Use of cannabis
increased from 11 percent in 2002 to over 17 percent in 2015 among
cigarette-smoking parents and to a lesser margin from over 2 percent in
2002 to 4 percent in 2015 among non-cigarette-smoking parents.

Calculated as a net
increase in 2015, cannabis use was nearly 4 times more common among
cigarette smokers than non-smokers (17% vs. 4.0%).

Daily use of
cannabis also increased from 5 percent among cigarette smokers versus 1
percent among non-smokers.

The overall
percentage of parents who used cigarettes along with cannabis or without
it decreased from 30 percent in 2002 to 24 percent in 2015.

Other
findings of the study

Cannabis use was
more prevalent among men (10 percent) who also smoked compared to women (6
percent).

Younger parents
with children in the home (11 percent) used cannabis more compared with
parents 50 and older (4 percent).

These results indicate that while the use of either
cigarettes or cannabis in homes with children has declined, there is an
increase in the percent of homes using both. The progress made in curbing exposure to second hand smoke is being offset
by the increase in cannabis use.

Moreover, there remains a lack of information on whether the
parents smoke in the house or in the proximity of children. Since smoking
cannabis outdoors and in a range of public areas is illegal in most places, it
could be possible that cannabis use is even more likely to occur in the home
than cigarette
smoking.

Goodwin observed that while the results support the public
health gains in reducing overall child second hand tobacco smoke, they have
raised other public health concerns about child exposure to second hand
cannabis smoke. There is an especially high risk for combined exposures in
certain subpopulations.

"Efforts to decrease second-hand smoke exposure via
cigarette smoking cessation may be complicated by increases in cannabis
use," said Goodwin. "Educating parents about second-hand cannabis
smoke exposure should be integrated into public health education programs on
second-hand smoke exposure."

Cannabis

Cannabis is
also known as marijuana, weed, pot, dope or grass and is the most widely used
illegal drug. It is obtained from
the Cannabis
sativa or Cannabis indicaplant. People smoke
marijuana as hand-rolled cigarettes or
joints, in small pipes or bongs (water pipes) or as emptied cigars (blunts)
refilled with marijuana.

The cannabis plant contains the mind-altering or
psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC). When consumed, THC quickly passes from the lungs into the
bloodstream from where it is carried to the brain and other organs throughout
the body. THC acts on specific brain cell receptors which also react to natural
chemicals that play a role in normal brain development and function. THC
effects are manifested as a state of
relaxation and to a lesser extent, euphoria.

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